For those who've read my adventure in starting up a worm composting bin in my kitchen, you'll be familiar with my ...uh..squeamishness..yeah, nice safe word...squeamishness when it comes to worms. Well, it isn't just worms. It's all little buggy critters. Let's just say, I bug-out real easy.
In fact, the other day while i was in the passenger seat of a moving vehicle, a spider ran across my book, and I totally freaked out, threw the book in the air and tried to...you know, i'm not sure WHAT I was trying to do....get as far away from the seat and spider as possible?? Thankfully the driver is a patient sort that doesn't easily rile. He pulled over so I could get out and calm down, and he looked for the spider. We didn't find it. It's possible I may have tossed it...up...you know....into my hair.
At least that was what I kept thinking as I scratched and pulled and scrambled my hair the rest of the ride.
One time my neighbor asked me to tend her garden while she was gone for a week. She told me to keep the peas picked and the strawberries. I was doing great with the peas, until I ran into...I don't remember anymore what I ran into...I just remember freaking out, and being too scared to stick my hands in to pick more peas. And the strawberries? Have you ever seen a nice pretty fresh strawberry, picked it up, turned it over, and seen a large slug nestled inside it??
Needless to say I refused to pick any more and had a neighbor do it instead.
Well, now, thanks to the EB, I've got my own little garden growing. Which of course means what??? Bugs.
I've actually been doing pretty darned well, considering.
I've left the spiders alone, even though we fought over a leaf I wanted....but he had pinned a bug and was doing something with it, so who was I to complain about his presence??
I've had a couple of other hunting spiders scramble over to me as I try to pick lettuce leaves. Dammit, it's MY garden!!!!! Darned squaters!!
And today....oh today.
Today I went out to see what kind of dreadful beast was making holes in my beautiful broccoli plant leaves.
First thing I saw was one or two little brown things sticking out of the leaves...kind of like something was attached head first. I think they were eggs or something. Looked like little teeny tiny seeds. Maybe next time I should take a magnifying glass out there....or not. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
With gloves on, I went through each leaf and brushed off each...egg?
While I was doing that, I saw a teeny tiny green caterpillary like critter. My hole puncher I assume. Sprayed each with my water bottle, until they fell to the floor, where they were promptly stepped on and squished with a sliding motion of my feet. Take that!!
Thankfully there weren't that many critters nor 'eggs'.
I did come across a patch of little black dots under one leaf. They got washed away with a spray of water.
Something's been breeding in my salad leaves. I keep finding something that looks like sloughed off skin/shell. It's long, so I'm assuming some kind of caterpillar type critter. But so far my lettuce isn't being eaten. Whatever it is seems to like to 'sleep' in new leaves that haven't uncurled yet, as the sloughing is found inside new leaves soon after they've uncurled. But I haven't found anything yet. And the sloughing is bigger than the little broccoli leaf hole punchers.
I haven't totally freaked out yet. Though I can feel the tremors and squiggles happening inside me.
If I give in to them, will I go insane??
